Can young star Joe Burrow lead his team to the Super Bowl against previous Super Bowl winners the Kansas City Chiefs? On January 30th, 2022, the Cincinnati Bengals played the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. For those who don’t know, the AFC is the American Football Conference. In the NFL there are two conferences that teams are in, AFC, or NFC. In those two conferences there are four divisions, North, South, East, and West. Both these teams are in the AFC, which means they have beaten all their opponents in the playoffs. This is why they versed in the Championship.

The winner of the AFC and NFC Championships will move forward to face in the Super Bowl. As many of you know, the Chiefs won the 2020 Super Bowl against the 49ers so they are more experienced than the Bengals when it comes to playoffs. In fact, the last Super Bowl the Bengals were in was Super Bowl XXIII back in 1989, which they ended up losing to the 49ers. 

According to CincyJungle, the Bengals have the 12th youngest roster in the NFL. Nick Manchester states “The majority of the Bengals’ draft class came out as juniors. All four of their first picks, from Ja’Marr Chase to Cameron Sample, are only 21 years old.” This is shocking that the Bengals starters are that young, but their skill speaks for themselves. Speaking of young players, both quarterbacks Joe Burrow (25) and Patrick Mahomes (26) are both under the age of 30. These two players have been grinding it out to make it this far, but sadly one has to go home.

The Chiefs are a strong and dominating team in the AFC. Their receiving core is made up of Tyreek Hill, Mecole Hardman, Byron Pringle, and Demarcus Robinson. All four have put up amazing numbers and helped the team advance. Their star tight end Travis Kelce has had an amazing season as well. However, the Bengals are the young underdogs, which makes them the fan favorite. Ja’Marr Chase is a rookie receiver out of LSU that has been crushing the league for the Bengals. Him and Joe Burrow played in college not too long ago, so their chemistry is stronger than ever.

The game was played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. This stadium is notorious for how loud it gets. Players around the league have agreed that Arrowhead is one of the hardest places to play in. The Chiefs have a home-field advantage, but the Bengals have been pretty solid against away teams. The first quarter started off with a touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill thrown by Patrick Mahomes. The Bengals tried to clap back and went for a touchdown pass on 3rd & 10 but, it was overthrown so they settled for a field goal to make the score 3-7.

When the second quarter began, Chiefs were on the Bengals 5 yard line when the defense sent a 4 man rush that forced Patrick Mahomes to run outside the pocket. Before being tackled Mahomes threw a dime to Travis Kelce to make the score 14-3. Samaje Perine of the Bengals tries to convert a first down but he comes up a few yards short and the Chiefs get the ball back. The Chiefs used this stop to their advantage to score another touchdown, which was caught by Mecole Hardman, making the score 21-3.

With 5 minutes left in the second quarter, Joe Burrow and the Bengals march down the field and score a 41-yard passing touchdown to Samaje Perine. With one minute left the Chiefs went all the way to the 1 yard line but couldn’t convert before the quarter ended, leaving the score at halftime 21-10.

After halftime the Chiefs receive the ball but fail to convert a 3rd & 7 which turns the ball over to the Bengals. However, just like the Chiefs, Burrow and his offense couldn’t convert on 3rd down. After going back and forth, the Bengals scored a field goal made by Evan McPherson to make the score 13-21.

On 2nd & 3 Mahomes throws a pick to the Defense End B.J. Hill, which results in a turnover on downs. Burrow then throws a 3 yard touchdown to the rookie Ja’Marr Chase and completes a 2 point conversion to tie the game 21-21. When it started to look like the Bengals had a solid hold on the game, Burrow threw a pick at L’Jarius Sneed of the Kansas City Chiefs. Mahomes couldn’t convert on 3rd down, which the Bengals used as an opportunity to score 3 more points, so the score was now 24-21. With 39 seconds left in the 4th quarter, the Chiefs offense tries to convert a 3rd & goal and fail, which leads to a successful field goal made by their kicker Harrison Butker, making the score 24-24 at the end of regulation.

The game went into overtime since both teams tied at a score of 24. The Chiefs won the coin toss which gave them a 90.9 win percentage, but on 3rd & 10 Mahomes threw an interception to Vonn Bell of the Bengals. In overtime, each team has one possession to score a touchdown. But if the team who has possession first turns the ball over, the opposing team only needs a field goal to win the game. The Bengals went down the field right before the 10 minute mark and brought out McPherson to kick a 31-yard field goal for the game. The ball is kicked to the left of the goal post but goes in to win the Bengals the game with a final score of 27-24.

The Bengals will advance to the Super Bowl and are the 2022 AFC Champions. Vinnie Ilyer of Sporting News stated “Burrow is red-hot over his past five starts, developing into a late MVP candidate on top of Comeback Player of the Year front-runner.” His opinion is strongly supported by Burrow’s performance in the AFC Championship game.